Brennender Engel
by Little Miss Molly
Summary: [One-Shot]Sarah wasn't the only girl to challenge the Labyrinth; there had been others. And there was one, five decades before, that the Goblin King remembers...


**Title:** Brennender Engel   
**Author:** Baka Neko Molly-chan   
**Disclaimer**: Don't own Jareth or the Labyrinth, I only own the OC without a name or a clear physical appearence.   
**Summary:** Sarah wasn't the only girl to challenge the Labyrinth; there had been others. And there was one, five decades before, that the Goblin King remembers...   
**Rating: **PG-13   
**Notes:**   
This idea came to me today out of the blue. No idea where it came from, but I decided to use it.   
**IMPORTANT.** Okay, there is some German in this. Since I can't speak German for shit, I used an online translator to do those parts, so it's almost certainly badly-done. If you speak German, feel free to correct mine. In fact, do so; I'll appreciate it greatly. The translations of what the German is _supposed_ to mean are at the very bottom.   
Since The Labyrinth was made in the 80s, I'm assuming that's when the movie takes place. This OC faced the Labyrinth about fourty or fifty years before. Keep that in mind...the time period is very vital to the story.   
**Update 11-21-04:** A big thank you to Thuringwen, who gave provided me with correct German. -Bows to Thuringwen- I very much appreciate your help!

* * *

_"Gib mir meine Schwester zurück."_ (1) 

Those were the first words she had said to him, the nameless little girl. She had wished her younger sister away to him, and now, like the few other scattered individuals across the ages, she wanted her back.

Her name was lost to him now; perhaps she had never even told him. But so much of her was lost now, how did it matter? He could not remember her face, or how she had sounded...but he remembered how she held herself, small and inferior and afraid, the tone of her voice, beaten down but determined, how she had acted...like a prisoner. Now, when he thinks of her, he remembers her in stages.

First, he remembers those first words she had uttered, voice breaking with sweet, delicious fear; he remembers she sounded so hoarse, as though, perhaps, she had been screaming day after day for a very long time.

Second, he remembers her appearance, but not so much the color of her hair or eyes, or her features. Indeed, such things are lost to his memory; what he remembers is her stringy, unkempt hair hanging limply all around a pale face; eyes so hollow and haunted by an impending evil he would never know.

Third, he remembers the place in which he had come to her; not so much a home as a den of the devil, dark and evil, cramped and reeking of blood, death, terror, sorrow.

Fourth, he remembers how she had replied when he'd asked why she so desired to have her baby sister returned to her. She had hesitated for a long time, hugging herself tightly, as though raging an inner-battle over so simple a question. As though she didn't know the answer herself. Finally, when she responded, it was the last reply he could have ever expected.

_"Unser jetziges Leben ist schrecklich... aber ein Leben hier wäre noch schlimmer!"_ (2)

She had said nothing more on the subject, and he hadn't asked. Frankly, he did not care. But he allowed her to challenge the Labyrinth, to fight for the chance to retrieve her precious little sister.

She hadn't won the game.

She'd made it all the way to the oubliette, and there she had become trapped. For the final seven hours she'd pounded on the damp walls, screaming the whole while.

_"Nein, nein, NEIN!!" _(3)

But of course, time ran out. As he appeared before her, in the darkness of the oubliette, he could see the denial in her eyes. She had failed her sister, failed herself, and all her failure could be summarized in the three words he'd whispered into her ear.

_"Deine Zeit ist abgelaufen."_ (4)

And she was gone, her one final, anguished scream reverberating throughout the chamber.

In the fifty years that spanned between her final seconds of her thirteen hours, and the instant when Sarah, his pretty little Sarah, had uttered those life-altering words, there had been no others who attempted to retrieve those they wished away. There had never been many, perhaps one or two every century; but for the most part, he forgot about them over time. Yet with this one girl it was different; when Sarah tried the Labyrinth, and he watched her, observing her every move, he found himself comparing her every step to that girl.

_'So she's found a passage already, it took the other girl nearly two hours to find one.'_

_'Clever with the arrows, the other girl tried that, too; scratched hers with a stray rock, much more difficult then lipstick. Pity, that tact still doesn't work.'_

_'In the oubliette already, I see, will little Sarah hit a dead end as well? No? So unlike the girl from before.'_

_'And now she's in the Bog of Eternal Stench. If only the other girl knew, she would be glad she never made it this far!'_

_'She's entered the city, now..._

_'The girl before her never so much as caught a glimpse the gates.'_

Sometimes, even now, he wonders what had happened to the girl. Was she a grown woman now, old and still aging? Something inside tells him no; something about the girl had given off the feeling she didn't have much longer to live. But then, what had happened to her? How had she died, if she had indeed passed away? Why was she the way she was, why had he found her in such an evil place, why had she seemed so torn apart from inside?

_Why, why, why?_

Sometimes, this was all he can ask himself, as he thinks of the small, raggedy girl, so beaten down, with the limp, stringy hair drooping in front of hollow eyes; and the armband she wore, emblazoned with a six-pointed star.

* * *

If you cannot tell, the girl, my hardly-there OC, and her little sister were both German jews at the time of the Holocaust; the time when the Nazis, under the control of Adolf Hitler, rounded up Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and other "impure" Germans, and had them forced into containment camps. Thousands of men, women, and children were killed. TRANSLATIONS 

1. "Give me back my sister", or "Return my sister"

2. "Our life now is terrible...but a life here would be worse!"

3. "No, no, NO!"

4. "Time is terminated", though it's _supposed_ to be more like, "Time is up".

The girl, my hardly-there OC, and her little sister were both German jews at the time of the Holocaust; the time when the Nazis, under the control of Adolf Hitler, rounded up Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and other "impure" Germans, and had them forced into containment camps. Thousands of men, women, and children were killed.


End file.
